House Energy panel to probe Keystone pipeline delay

A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel is putting the Obama administration decision to delay action on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline under the microscope.

The Energy and Power subcommittee will hold a hearing Dec. 2 titled “Expediting the Keystone XL Pipeline: Energy Security and Jobs.”

The hearing will occur three weeks after the State Department said it would analyze alternative routes for TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline to avoid the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska.

The new analysis will knock back a final decision on whether to permit the controversial pipeline until after the 2012 election, prompting charges that the White House punted the issue into 2013 for political reasons.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and two colleagues said the Nov. 10 announcement of the new analysis “doesn’t get us any closer to a solution and does nothing to increase our nation’s energy security or create needed jobs.”

“All it does is kick the can down the road at a time we can least afford such inaction,” Upton said in a statement with Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), who backs the pipeline project.

TransCanada and Nebraska state officials recently reached an agreement to alter the proposed pipeline route. Pipeline advocates say this should enable a review process that can be completed in six to nine months, which is quicker than what the State Department is planning.

But State doesn’t plan to complete the new environmental analysis until early 2013, with a final decision on the project to follow.

Terry last week floated the prospect of new legislation that would speed up State’s timeline.

The House already passed a GOP-led bill — with 47 Democratic votes — in July that would have required a decision on whether to permit the pipeline by Nov. 1 of this year, but it didn’t advance in the Senate.